1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to game board apparatuses and, in particular, to a mathematical board game.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
The prior art abounds with game boards and apparatuses for use in amusing the players as well as teaching them the various aspects of numerology, whether they be mathematical relationships or, for example, days of the year and/or seasons. In particular, the patent to R. Sewell, U.S. Pat. No. 1,406,691, which issued on Feb. 14, 1922, discloses a game board having a plurality of concentric circles disposed thereon with each of the concentric circles being divided according to the days of the month with portions thereon indicating the seasons of the year. Dates and seasons are related to various incidents of farm life likely to occur throughout the year. The player, having his token land on one of the spaces, may either suffer a penalty or receive a reward depending upon the season and the day of the month on which he landed. Thus, the game is intended to be amusing and would acquaint one with the various things that occur in farm life throughout the year. Each player may move around the board by either the throwing of dice or utilizing a spinner of some type to indicate the number of moves the player's token is to advance.
The patent to Tornes, U.S. Pat. No. 1,572,254, issued on Feb. 9, 1926, discloses multiple concentric paths leading to a centrally disposed circle which is the finish or goal point. The circular concentric circle paths are provided with different colors and provide for a penalty or reward depending upon their color when a token of a particular player lands thereon. The tokens or playing pieces are moved around the board by using conventional dice.
The patent to Ellis, U.S. Pat. No. 3,433,483, issued on Mar. 18, 1969, provides two concentric paths with the inner and outer paths being color coded and connected together at spaced intervals. Playing markers or tokens are provided for each player and a conventional dice is used to determine the movement of the players' markers or tokens. The concentric paths are not provided with any numerical indicia therein and there is no numerical relationship between one particular circle or segment of the board with another.
The present invention overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art by providing indicia in each of the sections or spaces provided in the concentric paths that have numerical relationships with each other and thus, utilizing the geometric flats or dice will teach or enhance the players knowledge and improve their mathematical acuity as they move between different positions on the playing board.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a mathematical game apparatus which will entertain youngsters as well as adults while improving their mathematical acuity.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a mathematical game board whereon youngsters as well as adults may learn and/or improve their ability to count by one's, two's, three's and five's.
It is yet another object of the present invention to teach youngsters as well as adults to become familiar with prime numbers and factors; perfect squares and cubes; and exponential powers of ten while providing an incentive to reach a goal.
The foregoing and other objects and advantages will appear from the description to follow. In the description, reference is made to the accompanying drawing which forms a part hereof, and in which is shown by way of illustration, a specific embodiment in which the invention may be practiced. This embodiment will be described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, and it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and their structural changes may be made without departing from the scope of the invention. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present invention is best defined by the appended claims.